Caesar Salad

Although many people assume that Caesar salad originated in Rome and was named for Julius Caesar, the salad is believed to have been invented by an Italian immigrant in Tijuana, Mexico. In 1924 Caesar Cardini, owner of a restaurant on a busy street, was running low on ingredients and was caught by surprise when a large group of patrons arrived. In an attempt to improvise, he tossed together a few items he had on hand: romaine lettuce, garlic, croutons, Parmesan cheese, olive oil, eggs, and Worcestershire sauce. Impressed with the creation, patrons quickly spread the word, and a salad sensation was born.

Fun Fact: Due to popular demand for the dressing, Cardini and his daughter launched Cardini Foods, which still sells bottled Caesar salad dressing.

Sandwich

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Many people are aware of the association between sandwiches and the British statesman John Montagu, 4th earl of Sandwich (1718–92). According to one account, Montagu, a gambler in his private life, was deep in poker play and unwilling to break for food. He requested that a servant bring him a piece of meat, stuffed between two slices of toast, so he could eat without stopping the card game. Apparently, his friends supported his request and began asking for the same as a “sandwich.”

Fun Fact: Capitalizing on the family name, the 11th earl of Sandwich (a direct descendant) established a sandwich shop called The Earl of Sandwich in Florida in 2004; franchise locations still operate throughout the United States and in London and Paris.

Reuben

The origin of the hearty Reuben sandwich appears less clearly defined. One account dates back to 1914, when an actress, one of Charlie Chaplin’s friends, visited Arnold Reuben’s deli in New York City. Hungry, she insisted, “Reuben, make me a sandwich, make it a combination, I’m so hungry I could eat a brick.” As requested, Reuben stacked ham, turkey, Swiss cheese, cole slaw, and Russian dressing on rye bread. The actress was so impressed that she suggested he continue to offer the sandwich and name it an Annette Seelos Special, in her honor. The deli owner decided to name the sandwich after himself—a Reuben special.

A second story claims that Reuben Kulakofsky, a Lithuanian-born grocer in Omaha, Nebraska, invented the Reuben. Kulakofsky supposedly created the sandwich with his poker buddies, who met weekly at the Blackstone Hotel. As soon as the hotel began featuring the sandwich, it gained local fame. After a former hotel employee won a national contest with the recipe, the sandwich received national attention.

Eggs Benedict

Fittingly, a dish often consumed to alleviate a hangover may have been inspired by that very condition. According to legend, one morning in 1894, Lemuel Benedict, a fashionable Wall Street stock broker, stumbled upon the Waldorf Hotel for breakfast. Complaining of a hangover, he ordered a la carte items from the menu, believing his concoction would help ease the aftermath of his drinking. His order consisted of poached eggs, buttered toast, and bacon, with a side of hollandaise sauce.

The maître d’ tasted the creation and was quite impressed with the dish. As a result, he added it to the permanent menu, substituting English muffins for toast and ham for bacon. The new entrée, named in honor of Benedict, quickly became a signature meal and remains one to this day.

Fun Fact: A restaurant at the Waldorf Astoria New York, Oscar’s Brasserie, was named after that maître d’, Oscar Tschirky.

French Toast

You may assume that French toast was invented in France. However, the etymology of the popular breakfast dish is still a bit unclear. During medieval times, a battering process frequently was used to make stale loaves of bread more appetizing. But were the French truly the first to dip and fry their bread? An extremely similar dish, suppe dorate, was popular in England during the Middle Ages. And then there’s the myth of an innkeeper in Albany, New York, named Joseph French. In 1724 he advertised the dish as “French Toast,” because he reportedly had not learned to use apostrophes.

In French, the dish is called pain perdu, meaning “lost bread,” because the meal recycles stale or lost bread. The irony seems to be that its origins really are lost.

Doughnut

Records date doughnuts back to the mid-19th century, when the Dutch were making olykoeks or oily cakes, balls of cake fried in pork fat. Because the center of the cake would not cook as quickly as the outside, the pastries occasionally were stuffed with fruits or nuts, which required no cooking.

Another common story refers to Elizabeth Gregory, a New England ship captain’s mother, who prepared deep-fried dough for the boat crew to enjoy on long voyages. She stuffed the dough with hazelnuts or walnuts and referred to the treats as doughnuts. According to her son, Hanson Gregory, he invented the familiar ring shape in 1847, while aboard his ship. In an effort to eliminate the raw insides, he claims to have punched a hole through the center of the dough with the ship’s tin pepper box. The hole increased the doughnut’s exposure to the hot oil and therefore eliminated the uncooked center. In doing so, Gregory claims to have produced the first doughnut hole.